Faith Doesn't End When the Worship Music Stops | Clothed in Kindness

I've seen MercyMe quite a few times, and I know exactly what was happening when I took the photograph above.

They were playing “Happy Dance.”

MercyMe likes to send people home that way. After the songs that can quiet an entire crowd, after I Can Only Imagine and all the emotion that can come with a night like that, they turn the place loose. Happy Dance. Confetti. People moving who probably hadn't planned on moving.

I took this photograph at Spirit West Coast, a Christian music festival that was held here in Northern California. Somewhere in front of me, a person lifted their hands and made a heart with their fingers while confetti fell through the lights. I didn't know them. I still don't. But years later, they're part of what I remember.

Maybe that's one reason I've always loved gatherings like this. I've been going to the THRIVE conference at Bayside for more than a decade. I've stood in crowds at Christian music festivals. I've sung along with thousands of people and listened with them when a room went quiet.

Every single time, after the lights come on and the crowed dissipates, I've gone home.

That's the part I've become increasingly interested in. Not whether we can somehow hold onto the feeling of a great worship night, conference or Sunday morning forever. We can't. I'm more interested in whether something comes home with us when it's over.

We Gather for a Reason

There is something powerful about being around people who believe what you believe.

Sometimes it's a few dozen people in a small church. Sometimes it's thousands at a Christian concert, festival or conference. Passion 2027 will gather young adults and their leaders in Arlington and Atlanta. Elevation Worship takes that shared experience from city to city through Elevation Nights. Here in Northern California, THRIVE brings together church leaders and volunteers at Bayside Church in Granite Bay.

Different rooms. Different music. Different traditions. Different generations.

The thing I recognize in all of them is the opportunity to step outside the noise of ordinary life for a while.

I don't mean that ordinary life disappears. Your unfinished work is still unfinished. The groceries still need to be bought. The person you're irritated with hasn't magically become less irritating. But sometimes we need to get far enough away from the noise to remember what we already believe, to recharge what we hold dear. So, we gather, we recharge, we remember. Then we go back and I think that matters every bit as much as the gathering, recharging and remembering. .

The Wristband Eventually Comes Off

I've come home from conferences energized by something I heard, an idea scribbled in my notes or a conversation I didn't expect to have. Most of us know that feeling after something meaningful. We leave thinking we don't want to lose whatever just happened. Then Tuesday happens.

The intensity fades because intensity fades. Life resumes because that's what life does. I don't think that means the experience failed. Maybe we ask too much of meaningful moments when we expect them to keep making us feel something forever.

The better question may be what survived them. Did I become a little more patient? Did I notice somebody I normally walk past? Did I become more generous with grace and a little less interested in judgment? Did something I heard in that room make its way into the way I treated someone who wasn't there?

Jesus spent an awful lot of time outside the places where people expected important religious things to happen. He taught beside roads and ate at tables. He stopped for people others walked around. He spoke to women others dismissed. He touched people others avoided.

He noticed people.

We’re not Jesus, and our daily lives are all consuming, it’s difficult to keep these feelings in the forefront of all we do..

Faith Has Never Had a Uniform

Neither has the way people express it.

For some people, faith is deeply private. Someone else will happily talk about it with anyone who asks and often with those who don’t ask. One person wears a cross they've had since childhood. Another has a Bible held together by tape and determination. Someone else hears one particular worship song and suddenly needs a minute.

And yes, some of us wear it on a shirt.

An expression of faith on a shirt doesn't prove anything. It isn't supposed to.

But human beings have always used clothing to tell little pieces of our story. We wear our hometowns, our schools, our teams and bands we still insist were better before everyone else discovered them. We wear things that make us laugh and things that remind us of something important.

Sometimes what we believe belongs there too.

That's part of why the Faith Collection at Clothed in Kindness became so much bigger than I originally imagined. I wasn't trying to create a uniform for Christians. I was trying to create apparel that sounded like Christians I knew—and like me.

There is Grace Upon Grace for someone who wants the reminder.

There is the familiar imagery of the Lion & Lamb.

And then there is I Know a Guy, which makes me smile precisely because it doesn't explain itself.

Faith can be reverent and joyful. Serious and funny. Certain about some things and still asking questions about others. It can be deeply personal without becoming defensive about everyone who sees the world differently.

Christians are complicated because people are complicated.

Our clothes are allowed to remember that.

What Comes Home With Us?

If you're headed to Passion, Elevation Nights, THRIVE, Jesus Fest, a Christian music festival, Sunday service or simply dinner with people who help you remember what matters, enjoy being there.

I certainly do.

Sing loudly if you're a loud singer. Stand quietly if you're not. Meet somebody. Laugh. Listen. Let yourself be moved. Capture that feeling with a reminder, something that when you see it, you’re reminded of the goodness. 

Our premium, vintage feel tees were made to meet this moment.

Take a little more grace. A little more courage. A little more willingness to cross the road toward someone rather than away. Maybe notice someone Jesus would have noticed. Maybe put down a stone you were perfectly prepared to throw.

That's what I hope survives the parking lot.

And if part of expressing your faith happens to be something you wear, you'll find plenty of ways to do that in the Clothed in Kindness Faith Collection. Some are serious. Some are thoughtful. Some may make you laugh. Some might make somebody walking past stop for half a second and think.

That's intentional. Because faith doesn't stop when the worship music does. Eventually the confetti gets swept up, the wristband comes off and Monday morning arrives.

What we carry and what we express in a comfy tee or hoodie is up to us.

Clothed in Kindness — Apparel That Sounds Like You. Say Less. Mean More. Find Your Fit.